He is capable, but doesn't want to do anything. I've had private conferences with him-he always says he'll do better, I've talked to guardian (she makes excuses for him), and I've talked to previous teachers who all had the same issue. Do you allow students to stay in your room with their head down doing no work? Thank you for your advice!
Some questions I might ask: What time does student go to sleep (per adult and per student) Does he use phone or game on line at night? (per adult and student) Does your school have a social wrker who can meet with child? What have teachers in past done (per child's adult)? What might child's adult suggest? What sort of excuses does the adult make? Also - if kid is on meds, doc should be told that student is putting head down. I have a kid who is ADDICTED to gaming and puts head down every day. I have begged adult to stop paying child's phone bill, get an old timey flip phone if he has to have phone. Nope. Kid tells me he stays up past midnight playing on line games. (HS) He is going to fail my class. I document every meeting, every phone call home...beyond this...??? Whatever your students issue is, you might not be able to resolve it this semester, or this year. But please, remember to document. For you and also for next year's teacher as well. I allow my kid to conk out, but only because my admin will do NOTHING and other students don't seem bothered by it. - but do what works for you and your class. Good luck! Stay sane!
I will generally try to see if the kid has something else going on. I’ve had kids who were sick, dealing with a sick parent/sibling/grandparent, or were just staying up until all hours. Sometimes it’s just a temporary thing, and it corrects itself. If it is an ongoing issue, I’ll call parents, and if the parent doesn’t fix it, we will try interventions from the school. I had one kid who had to use a standing desk because as soon as he sat down he fell asleep. Parents said they couldn’t do anything about him not sleeping at night. Another time the kid was falling asleep after lunch every day, but not in other classes. That combined with some other things led me to ask the parent about taking him to a doctor. He had undiagnosed type 1 diabetes. Once it was under control he was great. It’s a documentation issue no matter what, just to establish what you’re seeing.
